Yo, Adrean! Liberty Wins

January 31, 1993|by KEITH GROLLER, The Morning Call

Liberty's Adrean Askerneese stands out the minute somebody scans the Hurricane roster. But most importantly for his club, Askerneese has stood out on the court several times this season. He was never more noticeable than he was last night when his 17 points and 12 rebounds led Liberty to a key 65-51 East Penn Conference win over Northampton in the Kid Dome. The victory was crucial for Liberty (9-8 overall, 6-7 EPC) since it allowed the Hurricane to tie Northampton (7-10, 6-7) for sixth-place in the league. The top six teams qualify for the EPC tournament that begins Feb. 22.

"We let our kids know that this was an extremely important game because if we lose this one we're actually three games behind Northampton because they're two ahead in the standings and own the tiebreaker edge because they would have two wins over us," said Hurricane coach Dean Dedopoulos.

"With only seven games left, we would have had a big hole to climb out of. The focus was very serious in the locker room. We had to take care of business."

Askerneese and friends took care of the boards as well. Liberty owned a 39-26 rebounding edge and was especially active on the offensive glass.

"I looked at the stats from our first game with Northampton (a 49-47 loss) and I saw we had 17 offensive rebounds that night," Dedopoulos said. "I knew we had the potential to do it again if we were intense."

Liberty was just that, picking up six points on follow shots in a 9-2 burst in the final 4:23 of the second quarter which gave the Hurricane a 27-18 halftime lead.

Northampton made its first three shots of the third quarter, but then had trouble getting any off. The K-Kids killed themselves with eight turnovers in the third period and Askerneese's nine points in the stanza enabled Liberty to pull away to a 44-27 lead.

Northampton, bidding for its fifth straight win, fought back to within 48-35 entering the final quarter and took advantage of poor foul shooting by Liberty (missed front end of five one-and-ones and missed 15 foul shots overall) to make things interesting.

A basket by Rich Seaman made it 55-49 with 1:09 to go, but Dan Sobrinski steadied Liberty nerves with a pair of foul shots and the Hurricane converted just enough at the line down the stretch to preserve the victory.

"By the time Sobrinski hit both ends of the one-and-one, my heart had stopped beating for a minute and a half and I was calling for the trainer to start it," Dedopoulos said. "When he made the foul shots and I started to hear the boom ... boom ... boom again."

And while the foul shots got Dedopoulos' ticker moving again, it was Askerneese who supplied the heart of the solid Hurricane effort.

"I felt I had to rebound well for us to win," Askerneese said. "We knew we had to win this one. I'm glad we won and I was able to help out."

"Adrean has has been our unsung hero all year," Dedopoulos said of the 6-2-1/2 senior. "He's been steady and consistent and coaches and players around the league respect him. He's been as solid as anyone for us all season."

Certainly, Northampton mentor Bob Fahler took notice of him last night.

"You can't give a good team like Liberty three and four shots each time down the court and Askerneese killed us," he said. "You figure Kevin Palmer (game-high 21 points) is going to get his points, but you don't expect Askerneese to get 17."

Meanwhile, Northampton's Trevor Hafner, among the league's top scorers, was limited to just eight points (one field goal) for the second time this season by Liberty.

"They're pretty athletic inside and we needed other people to help Trevor out," Fahler said. "We just didn't hit the boards, get the ball inside or shoot very well shoot. This was a big game for us and the kids knew it. They didn't quit. They're disappointed now, but what are you going to do? You've got to put the ball in the basket and we didn't."